Went to the beach to see how and where and whether the storm was shaping up. A generous citizen upped their highbeams as we leapt logs in the unrepentant rain. It was quite amazing. Completely dark. The sea was relatively calm. The rain however was the extreme factor. A tiny umbrella. We took a look and tried to follow the light backwards, careful not to plant or plunge over the strewn logs. I imagined the sand might be entirely waterlogged and impassable, but no it was quite manageable compared to the expanding puddles on the concrete.
The sea was only warming up and could not compete with the tumbling rain. Always worth venturing out to discover how the sea is behaving during various weather systems. I expected the wind to be much higher, but it was early evening.
Stormo
First major urban storm of the season last night. I rose to the window six times to investigate it. Noise of the wind was much shorter and stouter than historical blowin. Indeed the rain was the noisiest component. The storm system is a Pineapple Express and there was something of the stoutness of the pineapple in the way the rain burst diagonal against the window. A heave rather than a drip.
This morning I quizzed a few folk out and about on whether (weather!) it woke them. No, they said. I am encouraged to see how well people sleep around me. It’s very peaceful tho’ staring out on the wind and rain, when all the domestic lights are extinguished. You can judge the power of the weather only by the light of street lamps, rather like illuminated speech bubbles in the darkness.
30,000 people woke to no power. More en route tonight.
Will be uploading some windy recordings if it continues.
Lady Dax
Did Danielle Dax ever grace these shores?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaOQHwS3bSs&hl=en_GB&fs=1&]
Rhotic 12
Ding,
Aimsir uafásach nó dom aimsir iontach!
rain gaoithe wind gaoth rain
Tá mé as baile ar an ghaoth
Ar cheart dom deoch fuisce an tráthnóna nó téigh go dtí an linn snámha
Sin an cheist
smaoineamh ar an Antarctica
Ní féidir liom riamh ag iarraidh dul ann ar capall
rinne mé insint duit go Ding?
Gra ar Mary ar bhreithlá a Beirlín
Chailleann tú mé gach
Rhotic 11
Ding,
Breithla Maire Mhac Attack inniu
Go hiontach!
Mc attack @ 40.
Go hiontach ar fad!
Pogeen a Mhaire.
x
Gan sceal anseo.
Open source prosthetics
NPR had a piece on open source prosthetics recently: here’s the link
Before Jonathan Kuniholm had a tour of duty in Iraq, he worked for Tackle Design, an industrial design, research and development firm. After that tour, he was missing part of his right arm — which he lost when his Marine patrol was ambushed near Haditha.
When Kuniholm returned to his design shop, he brought along three prosthetic arms given to him at Walter Reed Medical Center — the same body-operated hook many veterans have used since World War I, a shorter utility prosthetic, and a new, state-of-the-art myoelectric arm. Each one had its drawbacks — and when Kuniholm and his Tackle Design colleagues disassembled them, they quickly concluded that they could improve on the designs. They founded the Open Prosthetics Project, an open-source collaboration that makes its innovations available to anyone.
Lights out
Lights out in parts of Brazil. Interesting once you pay attn to power how much of a sceal it is
According to cnn
An important hydroelectric dam shared by Brazil and Paraguay failed Tuesday night, pushing a large swath of central and southern Brazil into darkness, said the country’s minister of mines and energy, Edison Lobao.
Rabblers pov
Here’s Murray Dobbin on rabble.ca explaining his take on the power situation in Canada, particularly Quebec and BC and the implications of the current moves.